Guest blog post by Gabriela Díaz Musmanni for International Women’s Day.
The Covid crisis has exposed the depths of gender inequality on a global and disquieting scale: from a spike in gender violence, to a sharp rise in women and girl’s unpaid care work fuelled by worldwide lockdowns and school closures.
Sadly, the pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg. With a similarly pervasive scope, the climate emergency is not gender neutral either:
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Climate-related natural disasters and conflict disproportionately affect women and girls, particularly in the world’s most vulnerable regions, impacting their health, nutrition, education, life expectancy and the levels of violence they endure.
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More women than men live in poverty, and their livelihoods tend to rely on natural resources threatened by climate change.
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Eighty percent of people displaced by climate change are women, according to the United Nations Development Programme.